An increase in the number of persons serving time in the Cass County Jail has put a strain on available space and is likely to affect the budget for this year and next. That was the word this (Friday) morning from Cass County Sheriff Darby McLaren, who spoke before the County Board of Supervisors. McLaren said because of the number of drug-related and other types of arrests, they can’t house everyone who is court ordered to serve time, and have, in the past, sent prisoners to other counties, at a cost of roughly $50-to $75 per day to the County.

Sending juveniles to other facilities is even more costly, and Cass County does not have the proper space to separate those offenders from the general, adult population. McLaren said he wasn’t asking for a new jail or anything of the sort. He just wanted the Board to be aware his budget will be impacted because of the issue.

Supervisor Steve Green, the former Police Chief for Atlantic, asked if they couldn’t just outfit the less severe offenders with a GPS monitored ankle bracelet or similar device.

(McLaren said they have a few available, but a judge has to order them to be used. No judge has ever issued such an order, thought. He could also place an offender on “House arrest,” but it would be on a case-by-case basis.)

If it’s a District Court case, he says the County Attorney can issue a recommendation to the Judge on how the offender deals with their sentence, and McLaren says he can push to have the Attorney make bracelet recommendations for less serious cases.

McLaren says they probably only have a couple of monitoring bracelets at this time, but he can always order more. Figuring out how to monitor a given number of persons outfitted with the devices might become an issue, though.

Jail overcrowding isn’t strictly a Cass County problem. Many area Counties are experiencing overcrowding, and are forced to send their inmates elsewhere, if space is available, but it isn’t free. Some jails, like those in Cass and Union County, have to send their female inmates to another county jail which is able to house those particular inmates. Other Counties have built new Jails to deal with the matter, such as Adair, Mills and Montgomery Counties, whose jails have a higher capacity to house inmates.

McLaren says the courts are putting more people on probation to try and deal with the issue.